What’s Taking So Long – Part III

I’m not early calling it, but, good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, something BIG is about to happen.

This is shaping up to be the second to last post on the Planning to Brew website. The last post will be redirecting you to our new commercial brewery website. More than two years of planning and all sort of emotional ups and downs will culminate in a closing at the end of this week. That means that in just a couple of weeks we will be breaking ground.

This post is not going to follow the same format as the others in the “What’s Taking so Long” series. Instead of a list of topics, this is just going to be free form. Here we go…

Over the past three or so months, Pearce and I have had a couple of WOW-WE’RE-ALMOST-THERE moments as well as THIS-IS-NOT-GOING-TO-HAPPEN moments.

Long story short… We designed a building based on a well-researched price per square foot. And we were in love with it. The architect and our construction manager both agreed that we should come in within budget. But then Charleston happened. New construction here is currently out of control. Everyone is busy. If it isn’t a $10 million dollar project, then no one has time or energy for it. When our pricing bids came back, we were almost double over budget.

Panic mode.

We started looking at value engineering the building but quickly realized that there was not enough fluff to cut out to actually bring us even close. So we went back to the drawing board. It took several weeks for the architect to do a redesign, for the engineers to add their remarks and for us to send it back out for bids. Our contractor worked hard to bring in bids that made sense from subs that were hungry. It was a terrifying time of uncertainty.

But then the numbers came back in. And they were where we needed them. And the bank seemed happy.

That is when rubber really hit the road. The bank gave us a checklist that we would need to complete before we were able to close. This included things like send them a survey or the property, the construction documents, an environmental and geological survey, and proof that the zoning was correct and that the utility companies were willing to provide service to the property. That was the easy stuff. Then we had to show proof of equity and where it came from. They had to vet our general contractor and we had to show proof that we would be able to get a building permit.

That is just a smattering of the hoops we have been having to jump through. But it looks like we have everything in order and now the bank has scheduled a closing. Our attorney, the bank attorney and the seller’s attorney are now plowing through paperwork to make sure everything is a go.

So now we wait until Thursday.
Fingers crossed.
Prayers and positive thoughts appreciated.